


echoes of voices long since dead

by lovebrd



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, M/M, Spoilers for the beginning of the timeskip for blue lions, just trauma bonding, nothing explicitly romantic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-13
Updated: 2019-11-13
Packaged: 2021-01-29 20:15:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21416029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovebrd/pseuds/lovebrd
Summary: Now that Ashe has made peace with the ghosts that haunt his days & nights, he tries to help Dimitri make peace with his.Set between chapter 13 & chapter 17 of Azure Moon.
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd & Ashe Duran | Ashe Ubert, Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Ashe Duran | Ashe Ubert
Comments: 3
Kudos: 36





	echoes of voices long since dead

Droplets of water drip from the torn up ceiling of the cathedral, the wet pattering of each droplet against the marble floors the only sound within the sacred ruins. That is until there’s soft footsteps, the sound of boots treading upon cracked tiles as Ashe steps inside. While the young man has often spent his time within these hallowed walls, it is rare that he comes here at such a late hour. In the days he’d resided here as a student there had been a curfew ( not that Ashe would let this stop him if he felt it necessary to vacate his dorm room ) & these days it’s too dangerous to wander around past dusk. Yet tonight as he’d laid restlessly in his bed, Ashe had found himself beckoned by an unknown force to leave his room & enter the cathedral like he has so many times before. 

It’s well past midnight, the sun long since set as the pale moon rises to shed dim light upon the monastery below. The cathedral is deserted save for himself & one other. Ashe can see him now in the distance, standing before what remains of the alter. He is not surprised to find Dimitri here, after all that is where the fallen prince has dwelled ever since their return to Garreg Mach. He remains ever still like one of the marble statues carved in the likeness of the saints. Ashe wonders if Dimitri prays to them for the shadows that flock to him, the ghosts that linger over his shoulder. Ashe has been the same, he is the same. 

Ever since he was a child, since he had been forced to bury his own parents Ashe has found himself drawn to the safety & solitude of the walls of a church. Whether it be a run down chapel in the streets of Gaspard or the holy cathedral he stands in now that has always been the case. Here he prays for salvation & forgiveness for the sins of his youth. Here he prays all he has loved & lost. 

The Goddess does not answer him, she never has. But it does not matter in the end, not really. Uttering the words to complete silence every day is enough to relieve him of some of the burden he bears on his shoulders. With that his bleeding heart mends itself like just as Prometheus’s liver mended & just as Prometheus, Ashe is ripped anew with each sunrise.

In the recent weeks they find themselves in each other’s company more often than Ashe would’ve expected. However nothing is exchanged between them except the overwhelming silence of the cathedral ruins. The only exception to this is the soft distressed murmurs of Dimitri as he speaks out to the ghosts lurking in the shadows.

Perhaps this should Frighten Ashe, convince himself that his old friend had turned mad in his grief. It does not. For Ashe has his own ghosts lurking in the shadows of his heart. He too has seen them stand before him with their pale complexions & their faces of disappointment…always disappointment. He sees them still sometimes in both his dreams & in the waking hours of daytime. For so long he feared he was haunted, cursed by the demons of his past forevermore. But he knows now that the demons he’s faced are mere illusions created from his grief & sorrow. 

They plagued him then & now they plague Dimitri as well.

Ashe can hear him now whispering, pleading to the faces no one else can see. Ashe pities him…well he always has in some sense. But even worse now as he sees himself in grief stricken man before him. Even as Dimitri speaks of murder & revenge Ashe is reminded of the promises he’s made in the name of the dead, promises he carries out to this day despite the fact that his parents, that Lonato & Christophe will never see the deeds he does in their names.

Ashe recalls something Dimitri has said to him in their youth, that while they had been born & raised differently they were the same. Ashe had not believed him then & still found it difficult to believe long afterwards. However he understands now even if Dimitri’s demeanor & behavior could not be more different than his own. They are both flowers, slowly withering away as they have been planted away from sunlight. Yet Dimitri had been Ashe’s sun before in the days where the light within him had dimmed. But the sun is gone in the deepest darkness of nightfall. So now the stars rise in the sky to illuminate the shadows in the prince’s heart.

Dimitri does not acknowledge him as Ashe moves to stand before him, stopping just a few feet to the left of him. Dimitri continues to ignore him, choosing instead to converse frantically with the ghosts of his past. In a moment of boldness Ashe speaks, his voice quiet & understanding. “They can’t hear you Dimitri.”

The next few moments go alarmingly fast. Dimitri stops his mantra of pleas, his large frame stiffening before he swiftly whips around to look at Ashe. Ashe has not been this close to Dimitri since before The Battle of Garreg Mach therefore he hasn’t had the chance to get a proper look at the other’s face. Dimitri is almost unrecognizable as he sends a glare at him. The lone blue eye staring down at him is the only piece left even remotely resembling the Dimitri he once knew, almost completely overshadowed by the long strands of hair hanging over them & the dark circles resting under them.

“What do you want?” Dimitri snaps, his words cold & menacing. Ashe flinches instinctively at the aggression in Dimitri’s voice but does not back down. He is not scared of him despite every sign telling him he should be. Whether this is bravery or foolishness is debatable. Ashe is chock full of both in truth.

Ashe meets Dimitri’s gaze with no difficulty, green meeting blue as he stares back with steely determination. He swallows, mustering up the courage to speak again his voice still cool & relaxed. “Pleading to the dead will not give you answers nor will it bring them back.”

“You…” Dimitri snarls, looking at Ashe as though it’s the first time he’s looked at him properly. “What right do you have speaking to me this way? What do you understand of my pain? You mock me, you mock my pain!”

Ashe slowly shakes his head, his brows furrowing under his large pity covered eyes. “You’re wrong. You may not believe me but I understand what you feel. I’ve felt it myself, felt it practically my whole life in fact.” Ashe does not speak often of his parents to anyone outside of people who knew them. The memories though dimming are still painful to recall. But he will this time for the sake of his suffering friend. “My whole family is gone just as yours is. I’ve had to watch it happen one after another right in front of me. I had to kill my father, Dimitri. You remember that don’t you? It happened while we were still at the academy.”

Dimitri does not answer him, instead turning his face away from Ashe in an attempt of ignoring him. Ashe is not finished with him however. He’s allowed his heart to bleed open & he can’t very well stop it until it’s completely bled out at the prince’s feet. “For my whole life I’ve felt guilty for what happened to them. I felt like it was my fault they died. For so long I believed that I could have done something, should have done something. I still believe it sometimes.” he pauses for a moment before taking a step in front of Dimitri, forcing the other to look at him. “But that doesn’t mean you have to be that way as well. You don’t have to be held back by the past unless you let it.”

Silence echoes around the room following Ashe’s words, the sort of silence that’s worse than noise, worse than just about anything else. Ashe doesn’t mind silence ordinarily but this? This is practically unbearable. several minutes pass & Ashe nearly opens his mouth to speak again before Dimitri speaks once more, his voice icy & threatening. “Get out of my sight.”

Ashe needn’t be told twice. While the archer is infuriatingly stubbornly & as optimistic as they come, he is not stupid. He knows when he’s used up someone’s patience & he isn’t interested in dying any time soon. Hurriedly he moves away from Dimitri, his pace not slowing until he reaches the very back of the cathedral. 

Perhaps the wise thing to do would be to leave entirely & Ashe does consider it. But despite everything, despite every sign telling him it’s hopeless & Dimitri is a lost cause, he still finds himself clinging to the slightest shred of hope that things will be better. It very well may be foolish but this is how he’s been for his entire life, clinging to hope & idealism when he is given nothing but despair & darkness. He has become the man he is today because of that mindset & because of others including Dimitri who have pulled him from the darkness. So Ashe will stay at a distance now just in case Dimitri too needs someone to pull him into the light.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I wrote this a little over a month ago but thought it was decent enough to post here. I feel like an interaction like this in game would've been interesting with these two since they hold similar beliefs about upholding the will of the dead. 
> 
> For more FE3H screaming find me at @lordlonato on twitter.


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